Grand jury indicts seven on 976 prescription fraud charges

Wise County and Norton Commonwealth’s Attorney Chuck Slemp III said the 976 indictments — split evenly between prescription fraud and conspiracy to commit prescription fraud — were unsealed Wednesday after the grand jury returned them Sept. 23.

Slemp said the seven people allegedly were part of a prescription drug ring in the region.

Travis Kilgore, 33, Brittany McReynolds, 31, and Tamera Thompson, 58 — all of Norton — received the bulk of the charges from the grand jury.

Kilgore was indicted on 149 felony charges each of prescription fraud and conspiracy to commit prescription fraud. McReynolds also was indicted on 149 counts each of the same felony charges as Kilgore.

Roanoke resident Michael Sargent, 38, received indictments on 22 counts each of prescription fraud and conspiracy to commit prescription fraud.

Lawayna Jade Thompson, 33, Norton, faces 12 counts each of the same charges as the others.

Christopher Sartin, 37, and Tina Sartin, 37, both of Wise, each face eight counts: four each of prescription fraud and conspiracy to commit prescription fraud.

Slemp said the indictments follow a Southwest Virginia Regional Narcotics Task Force investigation of more than two years of offenses from the summer of 2014 through late 2016. He credited Norton Police Officer and task force special agent Bucky Culbertson for the lead work on the investigation.

“Complicated prescription drug cases sometimes take years and hundreds of hours to investigate,” Slemp said of the investigation and indictments. “My office will continue to work closely with law enforcement to aggressively prosecute prescription drug cases in this jurisdiction.”